What Do Plants Need?
Plants make their own food! They need four things to survive and grow:
- ☀ Sunlight — energy source for making food
- 💧 Water — absorbed through roots; carries nutrients
- 🌿 Soil / Nutrients — minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium
- 🏭 Carbon dioxide (CO₂) — absorbed through tiny pores called stomata
Photosynthesis
Plants use sunlight to convert water and CO₂ into sugar (glucose) and oxygen. This process is called photosynthesis:
CO₂ + H₂O + ☀ Sunlight → Glucose + O₂
The oxygen plants release is the oxygen we breathe. Plants and animals depend on each other!
⭐Did You Know?
About 70% of Earth's oxygen comes from ocean plants (phytoplankton), not land forests. Every breath you take depends on these tiny ocean organisms doing photosynthesis!